The inner solar system is a lot calmer than it was 4 billion years ago, during what’s known as the heavy bombardment period. Over the course of that violent stretch, which lasted about 500 million years, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the moon were regularly pounded by asteroids, meteors, and other cosmic ordnance, many of the objects as big as the six-mile-wide rock that wiped out the dinosaurs. Things have gotten a lot quieter since then, but that’s not to say everything has gone entirely still. Earth still lives inside a shooting gallery, with thousands of objects—totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA—entering the atmosphere.
00:00Earth lives inside a shooting gallery with thousands of objects totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA, entering the atmosphere.
00:11What you're looking at is a meteor exploding in the skies over Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina on June 26th.
00:21The explosion was accompanied by a sonic boom. In Henry County, Georgia, one house was struck by debris that broke through the roof and landed inside the residence.
00:33There were no reported injuries. The meteor was known as a bolide, which is a rock big enough to explode in the sky, but small enough to be mostly incinerated before it reaches the ground.
00:44Only about 5% of meteors survive entry with even a micrometeorite particle intact.
